Social:SPIF (patent identification format)

SPIF is a standard format for representing patent identification information. SPIF stands for (Simple/Standard/Specific/Special) Patent Identification Format. SPIF restricts the use of non-standard characters in listing patent publication and patent application. At its core, SPIF is a simple asset identification and disambiguation solution. SPIF does not seek to guarantee the existence of an asset, rather, SPIF seeks to uniquely identify assets.

SPIF was created with the following principles in mind:

• Human readable
• Backwards compatible with existing systems
• Applicable to patents and utility models that are currently in force (primarily with filing dates on or after January 1, 2000)
• Available for a broad list of jurisdictions with an initial focus on patents from the USPTO, EPO, JPO, KIPO, CNIPA, and Patent Cooperation Treaty filings.

The first version of SPIF was released January 29, 2021. SPIF was launched publicly on March 22, 2021. SPIF is managed by the Linux Foundation's Joint Development Foundation Projects, LLC, SPIF Series, Project Name: SPIF Patent Identification Format.

Problems of non-standard patent identification formats

Lists of patent numbers are important to facility a variety of patent management and monetization activities. For example

• corporate mergers and acquisitions
• patent licensing
• patent sales
• standards setting declarations of essential patents
• academic research
• transfer of patent prosecution responsibility from one law firm to another

These lists can be difficult to work with because the tool or system used to generate the list may not be the same tool used to ingest the list, and inconsistencies between tools causes mismatches of patent assets. This causes in-house teams, outside counsel, and more to spend significant work multiple times over cleaning a list and making it suitable for use across tools (e.g., Cipher, Derwent, Questel, Innography, Unified Portal, etc.).

Some samples of problematic entries:

Sample Input	Likely Meaning	Type (app or pub)	Comments
CNZL201480022610.X	CN201480022610	app	Extra check digit and prefix
ZL03827150.8	CN03827150	app	Missing country code
GB3123328	EP3123328A1	pub	Wrong country code (there's no UK patent with that number)
CH,2420637	EP2420637A2	pub	Wrong country code (there's no Swiss patent with that number)
ZA 2015/000715	ZA201500715	app	Extra zero
WO002/001258	WO02002/001258	app	Missing year digits
GB2405228,319405.7	GB2405228B8	pub	Extra stuff, app number?
US2014214418	US20140214418A1	pub	Missing zero
US7123456BB	US7123456B2	pub	Made up kind code “BB”
KR1341015B1	KR101341015B1	pub	Missing 10 prefix
20067013095,Korea	KR20067013095	app	Country name spelled out as suffix
US2017163019A1	WO02017163019A1	app	There is a US app with that number, but they meant WIPO
GB2568035	GB2568035B	pub	Ambiguous
GB2568035	EP2568035B1	pub
US10229419	US10/229,419	app	Ambiguous
US10229419	US10229419B2	pub

Importantly, SPIF is not a solution for patent characteristic identification, priority dates, live dead status. SPIF is a simple asset identification and disambiguation solution.

Format details

The following defines the format of the required and optional columns in a SPIF compatible list of patent assets. The required columns must be named exactly as shown. The formats of the numbers for the supported patent offices and the PCT are shown in the Country Specific Guidance Section. These formats have been selected for broad compatibility with existing tools.

Column Name	Description	Examples	Priority
Application Number - SPIF	The patent-office assigned application/serial # including the country code and omitting spaces and check digits. There should be nothing else in the field (e.g., no leading/trailing whitespace) Reasons to include country code: Need it to look up regardless.  Eliminates confusion between the actual serial number and designated country for EP. It eliminates the need to merge columns for matching and also solves issues with Excel reformatting the fields into numbers. Check digits should be eliminated	US13624395 EP11759439 KR1020127027195 CN201180015433 JP2010549365 WO2011JP056984	Required where there is no Publication Number Recommended otherwise but can be blank
Publication Number - SPIF	The patent office assigned patent number (when available), or publication number (when available). including the country code and the kind code. There should be no spaces, punctuation, or other characters. There should be nothing else in the field (e.g. no leading/trailing whitespace) Check digits should be eliminated.	US9123456B2 EP2551856B1 KR101487211B1 CN102822907B JP4879373B2 US20130014973A1 EP2551856A1 KR1020127027195A CN102822907A JP2011118054A1 WO2011118054A1 (Blank is ok if no publication number is available)	Required when issued or published, otherwise blank

Additional fields

Additional fields may be provided and parsers supporting SPIF are not required to evaluate these columns when performing matching. However, if these column names are present the data in the columns must conform to the provided descriptions.

Column Name	Description	Examples	Priority
Title - SPIF	The title of the patent. This makes human verification of a file easier	High frequency cable, high frequency coil, and method for manufacturing high frequency cable	Recommended
Filing Date - SPIF	The filing date of the patent. This makes human verification and some machine verification simpler. Excel date (not text), set Excel Date format to: "yyyy-mm-dd" (ISO-8601)	2012-09-21	Recommended
Country - SPIF	Two-digit country code. This should be present in the numbers already but may be provided as a separate column. This is not the validation country for EP assets.	EP US DE GB WO	Optional
Family identifiers - Multiple potential column names are permitted as shown at right.	It is often helpful to be able to realize that multiple assets are all in the same family. Family identifiers are not mandatory; however, if they are provided the columns must be named according to the following pattern: “Family - <Type>” where <Type> is replaced with: INPADOC, DocDB, Internal, or a product-defined string, e.g. “Family - XYZTool”. This can be used to improve matching and/or spot common problems with the data.	Family - Internal 2011-01 Family - INPADOC 20110929WO2011118054A1 Family - DocDB 44672642	Recommend that at least one family column be provided; multiple columns are permitted if properly named

File format requirements and formatting

1. Microsoft Excel 2007+/OOXML (e.g. “.xlsx” file format)
   1. Not CSV, not anything else
   2. Not “classic” Excel, e.g. “.xls”
   3. Note, a goal is to have the format be human-readable and machine-readable. This will help build trust in the results.
      1. We recognize the problem of doing this (people will screw it up). The alternative is people can’t check and correct their files so they will end up with a CSV version and an Excel version and ...
2. The sheet containing the data is called “Master Data - SPIF”
3. The first row has the names of the columns only (Row 1 in Excel) and starts in Column A
4. One row per asset only (Rows 2 and up)
   1. To the extent practical, each asset should only appear once, e.g. do not list both the publication and the patent as two rows.
5. No merged cells anywhere in the Master Data Sheet
6. Column order recommendation, any order is allowed provided the mandatory columns are named exactly:
   1. Application Number - SPIF
   2. Publication Number - SPIF

Adoption and Industry Acceptance

SPIF launched with support from Cipher, IAM Marketplace, Richardson Oliver Insights, RPX, and Unified Patents, who have all announced support of the SPIF format in 2021. Additionally, notable members of the SPIF project include

• AON
• Dropbox
• Facebook
• Google
• Open Invention Network
• Shopify

The first commercial trial of SPIF occurred between RPX and Google in March of 2021 (announced during the keynote speech at IPBC Connect, March 22, 2021).